Chapter 4 – THE ASHES AND THE HEIRLOOM

We tore through the streets of the city in Luca’s armored SUV.

I sat in the passenger seat, my nails digging into my palms until they bled. Luca was driving, his jaw locked, the speedometer pushing ninety.

“Please be okay,” I whispered over and over. “David, get her out. Please.”

We turned onto my street.

The sky was glowing orange.

Firetrucks were already there, sirens wailing, water blasting into the collapsing roof of the small house I had grown up in.

I threw the door open before the SUV even stopped and sprinted toward the flames.

“David! Mom!” I screamed.

A police officer caught me by the waist. “Ma’am, you can’t go in there!”

“My family is in there!” I thrashed, tears streaming down my face.

Then, through the smoke, I saw him.

My brother David was sitting on the back of an ambulance, covered in soot, coughing violently. Next to him, wrapped in a foil blanket, was my mother.

I broke free and ran to them, collapsing into my mother’s arms.

“Rachel,” she cried, kissing my hair. “We got out. We’re okay.”

Luca stepped out of the shadows, towering over the paramedics. He looked at my mother.

“Helen Bennett,” Luca said quietly.

My mother looked up. Even through the soot and exhaustion, she recognized him. “You’re Luca. You have her eyes.”

“Where is she?” Luca asked, his voice breaking for the first time. “Where is my mother?”

Helen pulled a heavy, charred object from the pocket of her robe. It was a silver rosary.

“Carmine moved her yesterday,” my mother coughed. “But she left this for you. She said if you ever found it, you would know where to go.”

Luca took the rosary. He stared at the crucifix. His thumb traced a small engraving on the back of the cross.

“The old summer house,” Luca whispered. “The one by the lake. Carmine always hated it. Nobody has been there in a decade.”

Luca turned to Daniel, who had just pulled up in a second vehicle. “Put Rachel and her family in a safe house. Guard them with your life.”

“Wait,” I said, standing up. “I’m going with you.”

Luca shook his head. “It’s too dangerous, Rachel. Carmine’s men will be heavily armed.”

“My mother was poisoned because of your family,” I said fiercely, wiping my tears. “My house is gone. I don’t have anywhere else to be. I’m going.”

Luca studied my face. For a second, I saw a flicker of profound respect in his dark eyes.

“Get in,” he said.

We drove for an hour, leaving the city behind, plunging into the dark, wooded roads near the lake. The summer house loomed through the trees, completely dark.

We cut the headlights and approached on foot.

The front door was already hanging open.

Luca drew his weapon and stepped inside. I stayed right behind him.

The house was completely empty.

No guards. No Carmine’s men.

Just a single folding chair in the center of the dusty living room.

Resting on the chair was a woman’s wool coat.

Luca slowly walked toward it. He picked it up, burying his face in the fabric. He let out a ragged, agonizing breath.

“She was here,” he whispered.

I looked at the floorboards. “Luca. Look.”

Scratched into the hardwood floor, right beneath the chair, were three words.

HE KNOWS EVERYTHING.

Suddenly, a cold voice echoed from the dark hallway behind us.

“She’s right. I do.”

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